We had a record turnout for our April meeting which was held at Shimano headquarters in Irvine. Dan Thorburn convinced most that the new Waxwing lures will catch everything that swims. He also covered new rods and the new Trinidad a reels Shimano has to offer this year. If you missed it, you were missed, and you missed a good one.
We hope to see you on May 19th for our next monthly meeting, back at NMC, when our guest speaker will be Rick Maxa from the fishing radio show “Let’s Talk Hookup.”
Greeting to all our members and friends, and welcome back to the FIBers in 2011.
We started off the year with our first general meeting on Thursday night, March 17. This was our annual awards meeting, recognizing the biggest fish caught in 2010 and also members who have gone beyond the norm to help our club. We know that our members don’t serve for the purpose of recognition, but for the joy of helping others and also “as unto the Lord.”
It is still, however, only right that we acknowledge them.
Floyd opened the meeting with a prayer asking for God’s blessing on us this year, as well as leading us thru this year’s schedule of charter trips, tournaments, ministry events and various group outings.
Del led us in a time of devotion and reflection on God’s goodness to us, as well as a time of prayer for all the needs within our club. He also gave us a report on our whale watching trip on March 9th where every year we host kids from Olivecrest Children’s Home.
Rick told us about the guest speakers he has lined up for our general meetings this year.
And Dave presented the various awards. We honored three individuals… and one couple for their contribution to our club in 2010…
Julie Chalmers for her work in putting together our Christmas banquet…
Ken and Paula Kunkel for always being available and helpful – our Good Samaritans
Don Anderson, who was unable to attend as he is still recovering from his stroke he had last year, received our Dean Gilbert Founder’s award as the most inspirational FIBer in 2010.
and “always faithful”Jerry Bent, who we honored as our FIBer of the year.
In addition, we recognized five juniors and six adults for their fishing achievements in 2010.
The juniors were:
Matthew Telles for a 3.2# Sandbass caught while fishing with his uncle, Phil Diment
Dorian Quimby for a 1.2# spotted bay bass caught September 3rd with his Dad.
Andrew Telles for a 2.2# Barracuda caught on his uncle Phil Diment’s boat
Jessica and Bethany Diment, who together shared our Junior Angler of the Year award for their fishing
enthusiasm and excitement they brought to all the junior events. Together they caught more fish than any other kids, and helped make our junior trips the memorable events we hope they would be!
In our adult division we recognized:
Gilbert Acosta for a 24# albacore caught on our 2-day trip in July on the Pacific Voyager. Gilbert was unable to attend.
Floyd Spangler for a 8.7# calico bass caught on our 1.5 day trip in August on the “Amigo”
Joe Monaco for a 25.9# Yellowfin tuna caught on our 1.5 day trip in October on the “Pacific Voyager”
Jayson Quimby for a 2.4# Spotted Bay Bass caught in our Newport Bay bass tournament in July
Jayson Quimby for a 38# White Seabass caught on our 1.5 day trip in June on the “Outrider”
The largest fish caught by a Fiberette in 2010 was a 26# White Seabass caught by Valerie Handzus on our
1.5 day trip in June on the “Outrider”.
Congratulations and well done to all these members!! Jayson finished our evening agenda by walking us through our website changes for 2011.
We would like to invite all you who may be interested in fishing with us, or just checking us out, to come to our next meeting on Thursday, April 14th at 7pm.
We have been invited by Shimano Corp. to hold our meeting at their North American headquarters in Irvine. For more info, click on the link below! Hope to see you there!!
FIB’ers Club Meetings
March 17
April 14
May 19
June 16
July 21
August 18
September 15
October 20
December 15
Charters
May 16-17 Outrider: Reverse 1.5 day. Departs Monday 5/16 @ noon. Cost: $260
June 15-16 Outrider: Reverse 1.5 day. Departs Wednesday 6/15 @ noon. Cost: $260
July 11-12 Pacific Voyager 2 day. Departs Sunday night 7/10. Cost: $470
August 5 Amigo 1.5 day. Departs Thursday night 8/4. Cost: $260
September 23 Amigo 1.5 day. Departs Thursday night 9/22. Cost: $260
October 13 Pacific Voyager 1.5 day. Departs Wednesday night 10/12. Cost: $280
Juniors Charters
June 29 Amigo: AM ½ day fishing. Cost: $20 per junior
July 27 Amigo: AM ½ day fishing. Cost: $20 per junior
Olive Crest Kids Trips
March 9 Whale Watching
June 8 AM ½ day fishing
August 17 AM ½ day fishing
Tournaments
April 30 Newport Harbor: “Individual” format. Heaviest bass. Bait and Lures allowed.
July 30 Mission Bay: “3-person Team” + juniors format. Heaviest 3 bass bag. Artificial lures only.
August 27 Calico Coastal, Long Beach. “3-person Team” + juniors format. Artificial lures only.
Outings
March 19 Laguna Niguel
April 16 Surf Fishing
October 27-30 Kern River
On Thursday night, December 9, we had a great FIB’er Christmas party at NMC.
The fellowship hall was decorated beautifully. Each table was even decked out, and 15/0 shark hooks were attached to the utensils – Nice Touch! The dinner was potluck, and everyone brought their favorite dishes. This year four great raffle prizes were raffled off: $100 gift certificates to Nordstrom and Angler’s Center, a beautiful Christmas card set, and a Shimano Curado 300 baitcaster. Chris Deruyter of Calvary Chapel Rancho Santa Margarita led us in a time of worship, and then he shared a wonderful Christmas message. This wonderful evening was made possible, mostly due to the hard work and planning of Rick and Julie Chalmers – Thanks guys!
Although attendance seemed below what we had last year, many FIB’ers came out to participate in what has become a tradition with the FIB’ers – The July Monthly Meeting with special guest: Chef Daniel Mattos.
The meeting began with a short devotion and announcements. One highlight was hearing about Tom and Val’s recent 3rd place finish at the SWBA event in Marina Del Rey.
Not only did they break a long streak of bad luck with their new boat, but they managed to beat nearly the entire field of the West Coast’s best anglers with an impressive 23.17 pound 5-fish limit, and they burned less than a gallon of fuel fishing the breakwater right in front of the harbor! Another FIB’er team who finished well in the last SWBA event were the Bassbusters Jim Kiech and Dave Shill.
It was shared how they placed 7th while accomplishing a few firsts for them in a tournament. They caught all of their fish while on the anchor, they broke the 20 pound glass ceiling with an impressive 20.34 pound 5-fish limit and they had their best finish in an SWBA event. The winners of the FIB’er Long Beach Calico Coastal event, Eric and Jerry Bent, told a humorous story of how they nearly caught two Calicos with one cast.No one spins a fishing story quite like EB, so you kind of had to be there to get the full effect, but while they were fishing a boiler off of Palos Verdes, Jerry hooked a nice Calico on a 7-inch Gulp Jerk Shad. While he was fighting the fish, he noticed another Calico biting at the Jerk Shad that was hanging out of the hooked fish’s mouth, so he told EB, “Net ‘em both!” (more…)
June Monthly Meeting – Guest Speaker: Cory Sanden of MC Swimbaits
Even though game 7 of the NBA finals was taking place simultaneously, many loyal FIB’ers came out to participate in this month’s meeting. The meeting began with Floyd giving us a devotion.
Tom and Val were awarded their prize money for their 2nd and 3rd place finish at last month’s Newport Harbor Bay Bass Tournament. Tom and Val each weighed a 1.80 Spotted Bay Bass.
Following the awards, Walt Galin gave us all a fish report from his trip aboard the 6 pack Options. Walt shared about staying up all night only to catch their first fish around 4:30AM and then the bite broke wide open on 30-40 pound White Seabass. One tip he shared was that when you are fishing the dropper loop, try to only use enough weight to keep your bait near the bottom. They discovered that if you had too much weight on the seabass would sense that and then spit the bait back out.
It was an honor to have Cory take time out of his busy schedule to drive all the way up from San Diego to be our June guest speaker. Cory is the sole owner and operator of MC Swimbaits, and he still pours every single lure himself!
On May 20th we held our monthly meeting with 30+ FIB’ers in attendance. Del gave the devotion, while Floyd handled the M.C. duties of the meeting. Many people brought fishing tackle to sell at the swap table. There were many happy customers who walked away with some great fishing gear. Our guest speaker was Paul Working of the charter boat “The Outrider,” and of “Catch 22 Fisheries.”
Paul shared with us valuable information about the new boat in our club’s list of charter boats. “The Outrider” is based out of 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro. It was recently repowered and it has even been updated with the latest and greatest electronics. We are anxiously awaiting our first charter on “The Outrider,” on May 28th. Paul is also a biologist and the founder of “Catch 22 fisheries” which is a non-profit organization dedicated to reversing the steady decline of fish populations in Southern California waters. Paul shared with us about some of their projects which include the retrieval of abandoned gill nets, voluntary Calico Bass slot limits, and the teaching of proper fish release techniques. We look forward to our June 17th club meeting when we will have Cory Sanden of MC Swimbaits as our guest speaker, and we will hear about some awesome catches by FIB’ers on the Outrider from this month’s reverse 1.5 day charter!
On “Tax Day,” April 15th, we held our monthly meeting. Dave Shill gave the devotion and Floyd Spangler MC’d. Our guest speaker was Mike Chapman of OC Fly Fishing
We began our 27th year by recognizing some of our members, both juniors and adults, for their service to our club and their success on the water. Big fish awards were given to 3 juniors and 8 adults for landing the 
biggest fish in a species category. (more…)